Damon Runyon Blog

Our lives and the lives of future generations depend on it. Today is World Cancer Day. A day to reflect on the good news about progress against cancer and the challenges that lie ahead.

The good news is that, thanks to cancer research being conducted across the globe, real progress is being made in cancer prevention, early diagnosis and treatment. Cancer deaths in the U.S. have dropped 26% from 1991 to 2015, saving nearly 3 million lives. The pace of development of new therapies is accelerating rapidly thanks to new understanding of what causes and drives cancers. The challenge is that the world cancer burden is expanding rapidly due to the growth and aging of the population.

When young scientists earn a Damon Runyon award, they join one of science’s most prestigious and collaborative communities, a community dedicated to fostering the next generation of breakthrough cancer researchers. Former Damon Runyon fellow in the 1980s, Jim Wells, PhD, Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSF and a member of our Board of Directors has mentored seven Damon Runyon Fellows, all of whom have gone on to highly successful careers in biomedical research.

We recently sat down with Jim to discuss how mentorship shaped his own career and why he continues to bring Damon Runyon fellows into his lab.

At the end of last year, Norman E. Sharpless, M.D., was appointed Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). In this critically important role, he oversees the federal government’s $6 billion annual investment in cancer research. We know him well, as Dr. Sharpless has served on the selection committee for the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award.

The Damon Runyon-Jake Wetchler Award for Pediatric Innovation is given annually to a third-year Damon Runyon Fellow whose research has the greatest potential to impact the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of pediatric cancer. In its second year, Amanda Balboni Iniguez, PhD, received the award at the annual Fellows' Retreat.

Damon Runyon Broadway Tickets offers Broadway’s best seats and the opportunity to support cutting edge cancer research at the same time.

Some of our most loyal customers, like Rocco Staino, have been purchasing their Broadway tickets through us for years or even decades. Mr. Staino is the retired director of the Keefe Library of the North Salem School District in New York, and a contributing editor for School Library Journal and also writes for the Huffington Post.

First- and third-year Damon Runyon Fellows look forward to our fall retreat as a time to come together from their separate labs around the country, meet their colleagues and share ideas. This September, Fellows gathered in Beverly, Massachusetts.

You and your wife Laura Grant Van Camp have supported three DR Innovators through Nadia’s Gift Foundation. Why is that important to you?

Peter Van Camp:

The opportunity to support Damon Runyon Innovators is important to me and my family as a way to honor the memory of my first wife, Nadia, who succumbed to cancer in 2010. Nadia and I were married for 23 wonderful years. Unfortunately, as has become all too common for too many women, Nadia was diagnosed with breast cancer, and we fought her illness together for eight years. There were some good times during those eight years, and some very brave times on Nadia’s part. Although we lost Nadia’s battle, finding a cure to the cancer that would ultimately claim her became a meaningful purpose for us, and remains meaningful to me today.

​GEORGE HILL, MD, became a Damon Runyon Fellow in the 1950’s, and recently reconnected with us at our 2017 Annual Breakfast. He was amazed to learn about the breadth of our innovative research projects.

Asked what advice he might give today’s Damon Runyon Fellows, he said, “The most important thing is to find a really, really good mentor. Science is done as a team; you can’t do it alone. You’ve got to find the best person who will make you work hard. It’s the only way to do it.”

George credits an inquisitive mind for leading him down a path that would take him from the farmlands of Iowa to Yale University and Harvard Medical School, and would ultimately earn him a Damon Runyon Fellowship in 1958, which helped launch a prolific career in oncology.